O-si-yo u-na-li-i! (That's Cherokee for Hello friends). Yes I am Cherokee. I'd like to send a thank you to greenblue22, you are a pretty cool cat. Also thanks to AnnabethandPercyJackson17, Guest, and tyche. Major confidence boost. PuraStones, I'm trying to hurry, thanks person! PurpleGoddess9, I can't be sure to make him as epic as Rick does, but thanks for the comment! Keeta-x-Tribias, thanks for that catch, it has been fixed! ThunderNinjaBird, thanks, and everyone's different, so I understand. Last thing before the story, I give thanks to the favorites and follows.

I own nada, zilch, zip, zero. Everything belongs to Rick.

Chapter 3: Family Secrets

Percy was on the beach, enjoying the water when the beach disappeared. It was so dark, he wondered if he had gone blind. He heard voices talking. "Richard, when do I get to meet your parents?" It was a female voice that had asked.

"As soon as I meet yours. I want to talk to your father about marrying you." A male voice, Percy assumed it was Richard, responded. The woman gave a nervous laugh, like she was trying to avoid the question. "Don't laugh, Sarah! You shouldn't have asked me if you didn't want to go down this road."

As they were talking, the darkness began to recede. Percy began to make out the surroundings. The two people were in a clearing in the woods, sitting on a blanket watching the sun set. The sky was almost a blood red color. Zeus must have been angry or something for it to be like that. The man, Richard, was lying on his back, holding hands with Sarah. Sarah was lying down to, but had her head on Richards's stomach. Both were tense, as if they were uncomfortable with where the conversation had headed. "Rich, what's your favorite constellation?"

"I've never really thought about it. Just never really was interest in the sky. What's yours?" And like that, the couple relaxed and drifted back into easy small talk.

The scene changed again. He was back watching a couple plead to a faceless person. He recognized the couple as Richard and Sarah. This time, he could hear some of the words said. "Please, just leave Sarah alone! Kill me if you have to, but let her go! Father, please. Why are you doing this?"Sarah was crying, but not for herself. She had latched onto her companion's arm. He tried to push her behind him. There was a bright flash, and Percy heard Sarah scream one word.

"Richard!"

Percy bolted awake so quickly he fell out of bed. He groaned as he got up. He wasn't even drinking age, and he already felt like an old man. He glanced at his watch, and seen it was a little before eight. May as well start getting ready. He took a quick shower to wake himself up, got dressed in his least monster stained jeans and shirt, and went to breakfast. It was a Saturday, so most campers were still in bed asleep. Percy was jealous of the lucky people, who got to be normal. "Why a Saturday morning? Can't this oh so important meeting wait a couple of hours?" He grumbled to himself.

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness, Perce." Percy turned around to see Nico walking towards him. He grinned at the younger boy.

"Actually Nico, the first sign of madness is having hair on your palms." When Nico began to study his hands, Percy added, "And the second sign is looking for hair on your palms." Nico quickly dropped his hands, but Percy had already started to laugh.

"Ha ha ha. That was so funny I almost forgot to laugh. You should totally become a comedian." As they came up to the pavilion, Percy was still trying to fight back snorts of laughter.

"What's so funny, Kelp Head." Thalia asked from table one.

"Nothing Pinecone Face." After a quick shock, he told Thalia what happened.

"Death Breath… you let Kelpy over here outsmart you? How does that even happen?" Percy rolled his eyes at the shortened version of his nickname. Nico, however, quickly came up with an excuse.

"You know that I'm not a very good morning person, and I just woke up." Hazel and Jason walked up, and Hazel rolled her eyes at his excuse. The five children of the Big Three bantered in an easy going argument. Soon it was time to go, and the five piled into a camp van, with Percy at the wheel. Chiron would be meeting them there, preferring to run rather than ride with Percy in wheel chair form.

"Why do you get to drive? I was born first," whined Nico from the back seat.

"Well, I am technically the oldest one here, and the only one with a license. You were frozen in time, Hazel came back from the dead, Thalia is a fifteen year old forever, and Jason is just the baby of the group." Everyone laughed at Jason pouting. All of a sudden, Thalia reaches over and punched Percy in the arm. "What was that for?"

"White slug bug, no tag backs!" She gave an evil grin. The rest of the ride was spent hitting each other over increasingly ridiculous things. At one point Hazel had hit Jason for a Chevy Malibu, Nico tagged Percy on a purple motorcycle, who in turn got Thalia for a canary yellow semi. Soon, it was an all out war.

(line break)

At Montauk

When they finally pulled up to the beach, the demigods' arms were cover with red marks. They dissolved into a fit of laughter at the sight. The gravel crunched behind them, and they all whirled around, weapons drawn. Five demigods would attract a lot of monsters; even more so when all five are children of the Big Three. "Easy. I'm not a monster."

"Mom!" It was only Sally, not a horde of hellhounds that had come up to them.

"Are you five ready to head down to the beach?" Everyone but Percy looked nervous at the word beach. "Don't worry, Poseidon won't try to kill you. He doesn't mind his brothers' children, unless they offend him personally, which none of you have done." Everyone nodded and the little group headed down to face the gods.

When they got down to the beach, the council was already there, sitting like they would in the throne room, except Hades was sitting by his brothers. Hades and Hestia had gotten council seats after the last war, which they deserved. Chiron was waiting, seemingly unfazed by the power surrounding him. The five walked into the middle of the group, and bowed to all the gods in general, then bowed to their fathers. Sally followed suit, but only bowed once. "Lord Zeus, in no way am I trying to be disrespectful, but why have you invited me to one of your meetings?" Sally dared to ask.

"Sally, this meeting has to do with you and your family." Zeus saw her glance at Percy. "No, not this generation, but a previous one. I have decided, ah, we the council have decided that you need to know the truth." He added as Hera glared at him.

"What my husband is trying to say is he is going to tell you about your parents and grandparents." Hera amended. Percy looked confused at this.

"Lady Hera, if we are talking about my mom's parentage, then why are Thalia, Nico, Jason, and Hazel here for?" He asked. Percy looked at his father, who had his face set in an unreadable mask.

"Son, they have a right to be here. If my brothers would quit stalling you would see why." Poseidon added in a neutral voice.

"Fine," snapped Zeus. "Some years after our promise on the Styx, I broke it. This was way before Thalia's time. It was 1948, and I fell in love with a mortal. But I fell in love with her in my Roman aspect, Jupiter. Her name was Rose Favor. We met in rural Oklahoma. I was examining the aftermath of one of my better tornadoes. We had a little girl named Sarah. I sworn on the Styx, so I let her believe I was killed and I disappeared. I didn't tell anyone who she was. I did my best to keep monsters away and keep her hidden. She trained herself to fight. Then someone found her." He was looking really upset by the end of his story. Then Hades started to talk.

"In 1944, I met a mortal at her great uncle's funeral in Lexington, Kentucky. I had been bored at home, so I decided to check on the mortal world. We decided to get coffee the next day. She told me her name was Camille Jackson. We had a short romance that ended up with a little boy named Richard, who was a son of Hades. I kept him hidden, since my brothers hate my children. Helped him train, and kept him supported. One day, he was chased into Oklahoma by a group of dracennae where he met a girl by the name of Sarah Favor. They fell in love, unknown to us. But we found out." Hades looked at Zeus, like he was saying 'You got the rest of this'. Zeus took up the story, looking uncomfortable.

"Erm, yes. But when we found out we could not let it go unchecked. They wanted to meet each others' family. One was a child of Rome, Jupiter no less. The other was a Greek, son of Hades. We tried to make them forget each other, or leave, but it was no use! Their love kept them together. So, we had to take a last resort option." Percy guessed where this was heading.

"So you killed them? Just to keep your secret?" He asked them. Thalia was in shock.

"Yes we had to. The Romans and Greeks could not meet. They would begin another war." The demigods were getting angry.

"So if I decided to marry a Roman, would you kill me to?" She snapped at her father.

"No! I wouldn't do that. You know about each other now." Zeus cried. Jason glared at his father.

"So if Piper and I had been born a decade earlier, you would have killed us. We would be dead because we fell in love and you couldn't stand Greeks and Romans mixing." Jason said, stating the obvious.

"Yes,no…Stop! Greeks and Romans just didn't mix back then. End of that discussion."

"We get along fine now."Hazel grumbled. Her father gave her a 'be quiet' look. She looked mad, but fell into silence. Zeus took this moment of silence to continue.

"Back then, they would have fought until their numbers were decimated. Anyway, back to the point of the story. Yes we had to kill them. He tried to beg for her life. We didn't know why at the time. Richard tried to shield her with his body, but that made it worse for her. They didn't feel any pain. But later, we found out why he wanted Sarah to live. They had a week old baby girl. Her name is Sally Jackson."

Yup, I have left you hanging. I was going to add more, but I was at almost 2,000 words, and I'm trying to keep the numbers the same. Hopefully it's up to par. Maybe even epic enough for Percy to remain awesome and this story to continue to have a purpose. I will try to post the next one as soon as possible, but I'm taking college courses along with high school and work. Not even going to bring softball into the mix. See ya later, gators!